Hearing devices are portable hearing apparatuses which are used to supply the hard-of-hearing. To accommodate the numerous individual requirements, different configurations of hearing devices such as behind-the-ear hearing devices (BTE), in-the-ear hearing devices (ITE), e.g. including concha hearing devices or channel hearing devices (CIC), are provided. The hearing devices detailed by way of example are worn on the outer ear or in the auditory canal. Furthermore, bone conduction hearing aids, implantable or vibrotactile hearing aids are also available on the market. In such cases the damaged hearing is stimulated either mechanically or electrically.
Essential components of the hearing devices include in principle an input converter, an amplifier and an output converter. The input converter is generally a receiving transducer, e.g. a microphone and/or an electromagnetic receiver, e.g. an induction coil. The output converter is mostly realized as an electroacoustic converter, e.g. a miniature loudspeaker, or as an electromechanical converter, e.g. a bone conduction receiver. The amplifier is usually integrated into a signal processing unit. This basic configuration is shown in the example in FIG. 1 of a behind-the-ear hearing device. One or a number of microphones 2 for recording the ambient sound are incorporated in a hearing device housing 1 to be worn behind the ear. A signal processing unit 3, which is similarly integrated into the hearing device housing 1, processes the microphone signals and amplifies them. The output signal of the signal processing unit 3 is transmitted to a loudspeaker and/or receiver 4, which outputs an acoustic signal. The sound is optionally transmitted to the ear drum of the device wearer via a sound tube, which is fixed with an otoplastic in the auditory canal. The power supply of the hearing device and in particular of the signal processing unit 3 is provided by a battery 5 which is likewise integrated into the hearing device housing 1.
The sound of a hearing device and/or hearing system is essentially characterized by the frequency-dependent amplification. When preadjusting the hearing device, this is realized in any number of channels with the aid of calculated target amplification curves by attenuations of different levels of individual channels. In addition, the individual electroacoustics are taken into consideration by setting these channels. In this way, resonances of a hearing system are compensated for for instance. The result of the basic setting is thus a precalculated frequency response of the hearing system, which is composed of different settings of the channel filter bank and the individual electroacoustics.
The basic setting is however generally only a starting point for the hearing device adjustment and, as adjustment proceeds, the adjusting audiologist is asked to shape the frequency response on the basis of the requirements of his/her customer. To this end, he/she has access to the filter bank and can adjust the attenuation of the individual channels.
Modern hearing systems have a number of channels so that the realization of user and/or customer wishes on a large filter bank does not always appear simple. To illustrate this, FIG. 2 shows a typical result of a channel attenuation following the basic setting for a 16 channel device. The figure shows an equalizer setting over 16 channels, which are arranged next to one another with increasing frequency. The setting value for each channel k1, k2, . . . , k16 is symbolized optically by an actuation element b1, b2, . . . , b16, as with an equalizer. The position of each actuation element b1, b2, . . . , b16 thus represents the adjusted filter and/or attenuation value for the respective channel k1, k2, . . . , k16. In the event of the configuration only being displayed optically, for instance on a computer monitor, the rectangles b1, b2, . . . , b16 do not represent physical actuation elements, but instead only graphical symbols for instance, which can be dragged with a computer mouse and/or only represent the respective setting value of the channel.